{"product_id":"fortress-besieged-by-qian-zhongshu","title":"Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom New Directions Publishing Corporation:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSet on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eFortress Besieged\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e recounts the exuberant misadventures of its hapless hero Fang Hung-chien. After aimlessly studying in Europe at his family's expense, Fang returns to Shanghai armed with a bogus degree from a fake university. On the ocean liner back, Fang's life becomes deeply entangled with those of two Chinese beauties--Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, \"With Miss Pao it wasn't a matter of heart or soul. She hadn't any change of heart, since she didn't have a heart.\" When he does finally make it home, he obtains a teaching post at a newly established university, encounters effete pseudo-intellectuals, and falls into a disastrous marriage of Nabokovian heights of distress and absurdity. A glorious tale of calamity, disillusionment, love, war, and wedded unbliss, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eFortress Besieged\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was acclaimed by C. T. Hsia as \"the most delightful and carefully wrought novel in modern Chinese literature.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dotters Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54088196096293,"sku":"9780811238601","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2167\/5269\/files\/9780811238601.gif?v=1792101230","url":"https:\/\/dottersbooks.com\/products\/fortress-besieged-by-qian-zhongshu","provider":"Dotters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}